"Prolonged Detention": Did You Ever Fathom that Obama Terror Inc. Would Be More Ruthless than Bush/Cheney?
In just over 100 days, President Barack Obama, once thought by many to be the man to right the wrongs of the Bush Administration, has now out-bushed Bush and out-cheneyed Cheney. In a speech given last Thursday, President Obama unveiled a brand new approach to the war on terrorism, one that the New York Times says "is at the very boundary of American law". It's referred to as "prolonged detention", and it means that you can be kept prisoner without trial for an indefinite period of time, simply because of the crimes that you might have committed if you had been released from prison.
Is this where the neocons join hands with Barack Obama? I expected that the Obama Administration would be similar to the Bush Administration, but I am astonished that our new President would go so soon beyond what he regularly and roundly castigated in the 2008 presidential campaign.
In a moment of great and much-appreciated clarity, MSNBC talk-show host Rachel Maddow called it
something that has never been attempted in American history, even by George Bush and Dick Cheney.
One human rights advocate who attended a private briefing on the "prolonged detention" concept prior to its being made public, was greatly dismayed.
We’ve known this is on the horizon for many years, but we were able to hold it off with George Bush. The idea that we might find ourselves fighting with the Obama administration over these powers is really stunning.In his speech at the National Archives, where he unveiled a strategy of which Henry Kissinger would be proud, Obama said that in many cases we
The idea that we might find ourselves fighting with the Obama administration over these powers is really stunning.
cannot try detainees for past crimes because "the evidence may be tainted"; I suspect he was referring to torture.If there is no evidence on which to convict someone, he cannot be held indefinitely. If the evidence is tainted in the case of a detainee, rather than detain the individual indefinitely, that person should be released from prison. That is the essence of American law.
The Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution speaks of a defendant's right to a fair and speedy trial. Since, however, many Americans have come to the conclusion that torture is not "cruel and unusual punishment" (as stated in Amendment 8) and that brown-skinned detainees are not people anyway, they don't probably see my point.
In her commentary on Obama's declaration of prolonged detention,
I expected that the Obama Administration would be similar to the Bush Administration, but I am astonished that our new President would go so soon beyond what he regularly and roundly castigated in the 2008 presidential campaign.
Maddow reminds us of the movie Minority Report that came out during the early part of George W. Bush's first term. In the movie, people were arrested for crimes that they might possibly commit in the future.If such rules can be applied to detainees of the war on terrorism, whose to say that they same rules could not be applied to American citizens?
Ron Paul reminds us that not only is torture an embarrassing blight on America, but also that torture is
- Against both American law and the Geneva Conventions
- The reason why so many foreign fighters have joined the battle against us in Iraq and Afghanistan.
If there is no evidence on which to convict someone, he cannot be held indefinitely. If the evidence is tainted in the case of a detainee, rather than detain the individual indefinitely, that person should be released from prison. That is the essence of American law.
that we should close the Guantanamo Bay prison facility. Funny... Barack Obama used to believe that.Even the former commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus has "long been an advocate of interrogation techniques that are in line with the Geneva Convention" because any other sort of interrogation hurts our cause.
President Obama has backtracked on a variety of issues, including several that have his erstwhile supporters quite up in arms. Is it possible that he is going against his principles because of that problem with the birth certificate thingy?
Whatever we say about the Obama administration, I never thought we'd see them do something stupid. This is stupid.
ReplyDeleteThere's no need to trash the U.S. Constitution when all you have to do is treat detainees as prisoners of war.
Great reporting from Rachel Maddow. Simply unbelievable.
ReplyDeleteDeplorable. I was pretty sure Obama wouldn't turn out to be the messiah so many thought he was, but to betray his mandate on foreign policy so completely and so quickly...Astounding. Makes me that much more comfortable with having voted Nader.
ReplyDeleteBush signed orders to allow this and more...
ReplyDeleteObama is just getting ready to implement them.